


Ink upon your skin

by SaltywithSarcasm



Category: Dead by Daylight (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Dubious Consent, Enemies to Lovers, F/M, Inspired by a gameplay, Magical Tattoos, Tattoos glow when they close to their soulmate
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-17
Updated: 2020-07-31
Packaged: 2021-02-28 20:22:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 10,221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23183212
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SaltywithSarcasm/pseuds/SaltywithSarcasm
Summary: Her soulmate tattoo glowing could only mean one thing and she didn’t like the answer, the thought is enough to make her stomach turn.
Relationships: Kenneth "Jeffrey Hawk" Chase | The Clown/Kate Denson
Comments: 20
Kudos: 54





	1. Chapter 1

The night air is cold, chilling Kate as she sneaks through the fair ground, keeping a ear out for any kind of indication that the unknown killer was nearby. 

So far, she hasn’t seen any of the other survivors and the thought was concerning because what if they were on the other side of the trail? She didn’t like the idea of being left alone in a area with a lunatic and feels much safer in numbers. The more there were working on a gen, the quicker it’ll get done and they can escape.

She manages to find a generator and it looks as if someone’s been working on it but just ran off before finishing it; At least she’s doesn’t have to start from scratch, she guesses and crouches down to get to work. She could really use little Min at a time like this, the woman was so much better at this than she was. Her fingers fiddle at the machinery and pulls back when the circuitry shocks her. 

“Damn it.” She mutters under her breath and powers through it, wishing she had some gloves to use. A soft heart beat greets her ears and causes her to pause, listening closely as the sound continued to grow gradually louder. Kate stands up and slowly backs away from the gen, glancing around her surroundings as the hair on the back of her neck stood up.

She feels like she’s being watched.

Kate eases away, listening to the heartbeat grow softer before running off in the opposite direction, sprinting until she’s out of breath and leans against a building. 

To her relief, she spots another person, Meg cleansing a totem. She walks over to them and crouches down while they worked.

“How many do we have left until we can bust out of this place?” She whispers to her, looking around to make sure whoever this killer was, wasn’t sneaking up on them.

“We need two more gens.” Meg mutters, too focused on the task in front of her rather carry on a conversation. “Have you seen the monster yet? Big ugly fella?”

“No, I haven’t.” Kate tells her honestly, standing back up once the totem was dismantled and steps back for the other to get to her feet. 

“It’s a clown, likes to toss bottles of lords knows what in them, makes you feel sick and dizzy.” Meg huffs, patting her hands off on her jeans. “Fancies a butterfly knife so careful; Now come on, I want to get the hell out of here as quickly as possible.”

“Same here, I never really did like clowns.” Kate says as the hurry off to find another gen to work on, thankful to have someone else to help her work on it.

They manage to find one and quickly get to work, even thanking Meg when she offers her a pair of gloves to work with. 

“I felt like I was being watched earlier.” Kate comments, just wanting to ease the stress of the situation. “Heard a low heart beat but didn’t see anything.”

“That’s odd.” Meg retorts, giving the other woman a quick glance. “Think the killer was watching ya?”

“I don’t know, could have been just my paranoia I suppose.” She shrugs, trying to focus on not messing this up as much as she has already. “Don’t see why a killer would be just watching you for.”

“Michael and that other killer, what’s his name?” Meg heaves a gear into place. “Ghost face? Don’t they like...? Get off to it or whatever?”

“What? No...at least, I don’t think?” Kate gives her a concern look just as they finish up the generator. “I think there’s another one not to far from here, let’s head there and maybe we’ll run into the others-“

Her sentence is cut off by the heartbeat, making both woman tense, giving each other a glance before running to get away. Meg rushes ahead of her, being quick on her feet, another trait she’s jealous of among her fellow survivors. 

The heartbeat is getting closer, she looks over her shoulder to see if she can spot the killer but nobody is in sight yet. She dashes around a corner and quickly hides inside one of the two lockers there, leaning back against the wall with a pant, hoping the killer hadn’t heard the door.

The beating in her ears is getting louder, spiking up her anxiety with the closer the clown got. She hopes the others get the last gen up and running because her nerves are pretty shot from this trail and she doesn’t even know who they’re even facing. 

She really doesn’t like clowns.

A laughter from not too far away startles her, causing her to cover her mouth in order to keep quiet and hears someone scream shortly after. 

Please. Please get away, she prays; Squeezing her eyes shut as the heartbeat grows louder in the woman’s ears. She doesn’t know if she’ll be able to help if the other was caught, she feels like her knees would give out at any given moment. 

Suddenly the sound of the exits being opened fills her ears and she is washed over with relief...until she realized the killer’s presence was still incredibly close. 

The exits aren’t anywhere close to here so why is he lingering so close by? Does he know she’s still somewhere near? 

“Here, birdie, birdie; Come on out, I won’t bite.” Kate hears, her eyes widen in horror as the other called out for her. 

She needs to run. She needs to run now and get to the exit.

Just as she’s about to fling the door open and make a mad dash towards the closest exits, a loud sound of a knife being embedded into the front of the locker door startled her, causing her to let out a startled scream.

There’s a low chuckle on the other side of the door and through the little gapes, she sees a face of a clown staring back at her.

“There you are, my little song bird.” The clown chuckles before swinging the door open and jamming the knife right beside her head, she cowers as he leans into the locker. “Think you could hide from me?”

He tries pulling her out of the locker but just as he grabs her by the arm, he’s being knocked away by Bill and Ace as Meg yanks her out of the locker. 

“What are you doing?! Come on!” She shouts, pulling her long as she runs towards the exit. Kate glances over her shoulder and sees the other two running behind him as the clown gets up, looking pissed.

They make it to the gate and Meg drags her through it, glancing down at her arm and notices her arm tattoo is glow a dark blue. 

The blood in her veins run cold, how did she not notice that before? Her soulmate tattoo glowing could only mean one thing and she didn’t like the answer, the thought is enough to make her stomach turn.

It would make sense though, how he knew where she was without having to see her entering the locker. 

But why would someone who’s supposed to torment her be her soulmate, another cruel trick from this horrible place?


	2. Chapter 2

Kate is laying on her side at the camp, staring at her tattoo as the others talked around the fire. She doesn’t know if she should tell the others, she doesn’t think anyone saw it when it happened and she didn’t want the others to think less of her over this.

How could she even bring it up? Hey guys, turns out my soulmate is one of the crazed killers meant to kills us over and over for eternity? Kate doesn’t even know if she wants to act on this new realization because who in their right mind would want to have someone like that as their significant other? 

Absolutely not, she refuses to accept it and will keep denying it until the entity finally kills her. The last thing she needs is to be in an abusive relationship in a already horrifying situation, not to mention, she seriously doubts someone like that man could ever be a decent lover so why even humor the possibility? 

He’ll probably be much crueler to her just because she is his soulmate, to a person like that, he’ll mostly view her as his property to torment rather than a partner. 

So no. Kate will keep as far as she can from that damn clown, even if she has to keep running to avoid him...

Though she won’t be able to outrun him forever and the thought scares her, obviously he knows they’re soulmates so he’s likely to seek her out among all the others. Was that why she felt like she was being watched? 

Did the clown realize from the tattoo on her arm that they were soulmates? Did he even have a tattoo to match her’s? She didn’t really get a good look at him when he found her in the locker.

“Hey Kate, what are you doing over here all by yourself?” She hears Jeff ask, turning to see him sit down beside her. “Something the matter?”

“...I didn’t do so good durning the last trail, it’s still bothering me, I guess.” Kate says, sitting up and rubs her arm. Why couldn’t Jeff have been her soulmate? He handsome and caring, they share the same love fore music, is actually a decent human being.

It’s all just a cruel joke.

“We all have our bad days, no need to beat yourself up about it.” He says, patting her leg as he settles down comfortably beside her. “The other day-eh, at least I think it was the other day, I unhooked David right in front of the Huntress and he still won’t let me live that down.”

“Did he get sacrificed?”

“No, we both got out, just had to dodge-eh, what I’m trying to say is we all make mistakes; We’re not perfect.” He explains, glancing over to the group. 

“This isn’t just some sort of mistake I can learn from, Jeff.” She explains, letting out a sigh as she stares down at her tattoo. “When I was in the trail, my soulmate tattoo started to glow.”

“Then you met your soulmate, what’s the big deal?” He jokes but when he notices the look on her face, his smile slips. “Shouldn’t you be happy?”

“It doesn’t glow when we’re here, Jeff; It only did it when we were in the trail with a killer.”

“Oh.” His eyes widen in disbelief and looks away, petting his beard in thought. “So...the killer is, um, that doesn’t make any sense.”

“I don’t know what to do, I’m so afraid because he hunted me down in the last trail and I don’t know what I’m going to do if I go there again.”

Jeff thinks for a moment before reaching into his coat pocket and offers her some random items.

“Here, take these. If you burn them, you should be either sent to the asylum or the farm house.” He tells her. “Should give you a little while so we can come up with something.” 

“What do you think I should do?” Kate whispers, looking down at her lap in defeat. “I can’t keep running from him forever.”

“Well I think we should inform the rest of the group just in case so we can have your back if you do get taken there again.” 

“I never thought I would be so scared when I finally met my soulmate, this place is a cruel place.” Kate sobs, wiping her eyes. “I just wish I would actually just die, I’m so tired of this place. I’m just done.”

“Hey, hey; Don’t talk like that, we just got to remain strong.”

“And what? Do you think we’ll ever get out of here? We’re just playthings to these monsters.” Kate takes a deep breath before looking at him again. “And now I have one who has a special interest in me just because of this tattoo.”

“Hey now, just take a deep breath.” He pats her arm and gets to his feet, making a motion for her to follow him back to the bonfire. “I’m sure the others will listen.”

“And if they get angry with me?”

“Why would they be angry? You have no control over this and you’re scared, they’ll understand.” Jeff tells her, helping her up and leads her over towards the others with reassuring arm around her shoulder. “They’re our friends and they’ll want to help you.”

Kate gives him a brief smile then turns towards the others, supposing it would be best to tell them to let them know what’s going on. Jeff’s right, they would do their best to protect her if she needs it.


	3. Chapter 3

Kate was able to avoid going to the circus grounds, getting by pretty well durning the trails; Her and the others would scavenge for offerings while she was at the campfire for anything to send her somewhere else but her luck is slowly running out, offerings meant to be burnt to be sent to certain places are getting harder to find, it was only a matter of time before she was sent back to that place.

The others knew she was anxious, Kate could tell by the way they looked at her, she could see the sympathy in their eyes but it didn’t help her feel better. She knows they’ll try their best to protect if they had to but she couldn’t shake the overwhelming feeling of dread lingering over her.

Kate mindlessly strums on her guitar, staring at the fire as the other talked around her; She didn’t know what do for the moment, they’ve searched everywhere for these offers and turn up with empty hands, now all she could do is wait and hope that when she’s summoned to another trial that it won’t be his. 

She knows he’s waiting for her, the other told her that when they get sent there, they could tell he was a lot more aggressive than he normally is, looking frustrated and flat out killed Bill out of anger. Kate has no doubt that he’ll hurt her the moment he got his hands on her because she’s been avoiding him. 

With a deep breath, she starts playing on her guitar and turns her attention to the strings, not wanting to meet anyone’s eyes, more than anything she wants to be alone. 

Not venturing out into the fog alone was always a unspoken rule among them, none of them knew what was out there and if they went, they always stuck in a group but right now, Kate considered it; If she died somehow, it wouldn’t really make much of a difference.

Either she came right back here or her suffering was finally over, she didn’t care anymore. She just needs to get away for a little bit and think about what she’s going to do next.

Kate sets her guitar to the side and gets up, muttering something about needing to clear her head and wonders off away from the group to the edge of the camp site, looking out into the tree and heavy fog, feeling like she’s being drawn towards it.

She won’t go off too far, maybe she can find something on her own out there, something they might have missed.

“Denson.” Her thoughts are interrupted by a hand on her shoulder and jumps, spinning around to see Jeff had followed her. “Where are you heading off to?”

“N-nowhere.” She shakes her head and crosses her arms. “Just needed some alone time, you know?”

“I know we haven’t been having any luck finding anymore of that junk to keep you away from that guy but if you wanna head out there again, all you have to do is ask; There’s nothing better to do.” 

“No, it’s not that.” Kate lets out a sigh, rubbing his hands through her hair before looking at him again. “I know I won’t be able to avoid him forever, I just...I don’t know; Need some space right now.”

“Oh. Okay, sorry; We’re just all really worried about you.” Jeff says sheepishly. 

“...I’m sorry, it’s just the stress.” Kate mutters apologetically, looking at him and offers a smile. “I’ll come back to the campfire soon, don’t worry.”

“Alright....we’ll be right over there if you need us.”

To her disappointment, the next trial she’s summoned in was the circus grounds. Kate’s heart drops and feels like losing hope until Claudette rests a hand on her shoulder. 

“You’re going to be fine, just stick close to me.” She whispers, crouching down and motions for her to follow her. Together they sneak over to the first gen and begin working on it, she can tell Claudette is glancing over to her while she worked. 

Kate tried to focus on the task in front of her, keeping a ear out for any signs of a heart beat.

“He’s going to know exactly where I am, you know.” Kate mutters under her breath. “Regardless if we hide or not because of my tattoo.”

“Doesn’t matter to me.” Claudette replies sharply, giving a little smirk. “I’m not afraid of no damn clown and if he wants to get to you, he has to get through us.”

Kate thanks her as they continued working on a gen, hearing the sound of Nancy screaming farther away after the sound of a bottle shattering. They both look at each other with uneasiness and gets back to work until the thing is finally completed.

Claudette motions for her to follow her again and they both hurry off towards the opposite direction, wanting to stay as far away as she can throughout the rest of this trial. 

A scream echoes through the night and both of them pause in their steps.

“You go hide.” Claudette tells her. “Stay put until we get her off the hook, understand?”

“What if he finds me?”

“Then run and find one of us.” Claudette runs off towards the direction off the hook and Kate doesn’t hesitate to run off to hide. 

She crouches behind a bunch of crates and peers over to see if she could spot any movement in the distance. Kate listens, hoping Claudette or whoever else manages to get Nancy off the hook safely but suddenly a black tendril appears from the crate she crouching behind and wraps itself around her wrist before she has a chance to pull away.

She yanks herself away from the crate, feeling the appendage strength as it keeps her from going too far; What the hell?! Kate begins to panic as she tries to get herself free from the thing but it just wouldn’t let her go. 

“Kate!? Kate, what are you doing?!” She hears Jeff say, running over to her and grabs her shoulder.

“It won’t let go!” She whispers in a panicked whisper, Jeff grabs it and tries to pull it off as she tugs on her arm. The tattoo on her arm starts to glow before she hears the heartbeat growing closer and starts frantically trying to get herself free. “H-he’s coming!”

Jeff doesn’t reply, trying his best to get the thing to let out and hears footsteps running up to them; Claudette.

“What’s going on?!” She asks, looking over her shoulder.

“The entity has a hold of her.” Jeff says, the tone of his voice is angry and stressed. Something is thrown against the crates and purple mist engulfs them, hearing a distorted laughter follow after. Kate can feel Jeff getting disoriented as he tries his best to keep trying to pry her free, her own vision getting foggy and her knees feel like giving out from under her. 

Kate looks up from her arm to see the clown standing a few free from them, twirling his butterfly knife in one hand as he held a bottle in another.

“Well, well, well...isn’t this a nice surprise?” The clown says, slowly approaching them and raises a brow upon seeing the entity’s hold on her. “The help wasn’t needed but I do appreciate you catching my little songbird for me.”

He...didn’t plan this?

“Get away from her.” Claudette sneers, picking up a pipe from the crates and arms herself if he decides to come any closer, surprisingly he’s stops, looking the other woman over with disinterested. 

“Have you been avoiding me, hmm?” He asks, completely ignoring the other two with his focus directly on her. “Frank told me him and his band of goons have been seeing ya an awful lot hanging around his place, that not really nice of ya.”

The clown glances down at his arm and pulls his sleeve up to reveal the same tattoo on his arm, chuckling as he holds it for them to see. 

“We’re linked, little red; you ain’t getting away from me.” His eyes held a lot of minis as he stares at the other two, welding his knife again. “No point in throwing your lives away for her, let me have her and you all can walk away from this trial without so much as a scratch from me.”

“Piss off, you shitty ass clown.” Jeff snaps at him, picking up a 2x4 and holds it up, ready to swing. 

“I can wait here all day, kiddies.” He chuckles, glancing between the two of them. “We all know your little toys won’t do much against me here and if you take too long...well, the entity will get impatient.”

“We’re not about to let you come near her.” Claudette shouts at him, glancing back at Kate before focusing on the killer in front of her. 

“It’s a shame really...” He chuckles, swirling his glass bottle of toxins with a smile on his face. “Here we all are, away from any of those pesky generators and no one to tell that little Nancy girl to reframe from opening the gate...it’s only a matter of time before your time runs out. Who will protect little Kate then?”

Kate feels the blood run from her face as the clown’s eyes met her’s.

If the time runs out and both Jeff and Claudette are sacrificed, will she be sacrificed too along with them? Surely he isn’t expecting the entity to spare her just so she’d be trapped her with the clown...

But this thing caught her to help him so it could be possible that once the others ran out of time, she could be spared being sacrificed to be stuck her with him.

“Just go.” Kate says, looking at Jeff, pleading with him to save themselves. 

“We’re not just going to leave you.” Jeff replies without hesitation. 

“I’m stuck here, there’s nothing else you can do.” Kate points out, turning to Claudette. “There isn’t much time, you all can still save yourselves.”

“We’re not abandoning you, Kate so drop it.” Claudette snaps, giving her firm stare. “We’ll wait here as long as we need to, even if we have to beat this lunatic to a pulp-“

“As touching as your words are, I’m beginning to lose my patience.” The clown curls his lip with aggravation but perks up once he hears the exit gates come to life in the distance, grinning at their dismay. “Tik-tok, tik-tok; So what will it be? Hm? Your lives for one little bitty survivor or be sacrificed once again and have a bit of your souls taken by the entity?”

“Jeff, can you try freeing her again?” Claudette asks, looking worried as the sound of the gate being open filled their ears. Jeff keeps his eyes on the clown as he crouches down beside Kate again, the ground cracking beneath them in a orange glow. 

“The thing isn’t wanting to let go.” Jeff tells her as the clown watches amusedly by their attempts. Jeff tried smacking the crate, hoping it would break under impact of his 2x4 but the most it does it splinter the wood. “Goddamn it!”

The clown lets out a howl of laughter, his body shaking as the earth beneath their feet began to crumble and ashes came from the boiling cracks.

“ What to do, what to do~” The clown grins, flicking his finger side to side. “Whatever it’ll be, there’s no getting away from me.”

Kate feels herself trembling with fear, bringing tears to her eyes and she lowers his head in defeat, staring that the charring ground as the entity engulfed the area in a burning chaos. 

She wants them to just leave, to not risk themselves like this but neither are welling to budge from their spots; They’re going to get themselves killed over her and there’s nothing she can’t do about it. A warning bell is heard overhead, their time is running out. 

Jeff’s hand is on her shoulder, holding firmly as he glares back at the killer, despising the smug look on his face as another bell is heard.

Suddenly limbs burst out of the ground, stabbing both of her friends through the chest and wrap around their bodies, causing them to drop their weapons as they’re being crushed. Kate watches in horror as her friends are being killed right in front of her, their bodies disappearing into ash as their souls are being pulled up to the sky. 

Tears are streaming down her face, staring down at the ground; She had spared being killed just as she thought she would. 

Once the limb slither back into the ground, Kate feels the one holding her wrist let go and lifts her head slowly to see the clown staring back at her, sadistic grin gone from his face. She sees his tattoo glowing on his arm as he attaches his bottle to his waist and pockets his knife.

“Your friends are stubborn little bastards, I’ll give them that; Don’t know a good deal when it’s staring them back in the face.” He says, approaching her. Kate gets back up to her feet, scrambling to put some distance between them as he rounds the crates. “You can run all you like, my dear; I love a good chase.”

Kate picks up the pipe Claudette had been holding and arms herself.

“Get away from me.” She snaps, swinging it towards him, wanting him to keep his distance. “Don’t come anywhere near me.”

“Is that anyway to speak to your soulmate, little red?” He fakes a pout but stops in his tracks. “Come on now, put down that pipe; I’m not gonna hurt ya.”

“Get away from me!” She shouts, tears burning her eyes. If she’s lucky, even if the trial is over maybe she could find the exit and still get out or maybe find the hatch before he has the chance to close it. 

“Alright, alright...” He raises his hands, almost like surrender and shakes his head slowly, watching her fascination. “You’re just as fiery as you are beautiful, Miss Denson.”

Kate sneers at him, glancing behind her to see if she should see the open gate and to her relief, she sees it, not too far from where they were; If she could just get there, she could make it back to the campfire. 

“I don’t want anything to do with you.” She says, taking another step back. “You’re a killer, a crazy lunatic.”

“True but I have no reason to harm you-“

“You’re a liar!” Kate snaps back, glancing around her and notices the sacrificial hooks were turning to dust around them. “This is just another trick, another way to torment me in this hellish nightmare.”

“There is no tricks, only fate; We are linked you and I, the entity has nothing to do with this, I can promise you that.” The clown steps closer so she raises the pipe again. “Put the pipe down.”

Kate’s lip twitches, debating her choices and decides she should at least try, she turns and runs, not looking back because Kate knows he’s following him. She rushes past the tents and past the old chapel, running past fallen pallets and dying generators, there is no heart beat pounding in her ears as she reaches the open gate, only to find black barbs jolting out of the ground, blocking her escape. 

“No!” She hits the barrier with the pipe, smacking again in hopes it would shatter; This can’t be happening, these were only meant to prevent the killer from following after them, why isn’t it allowing her to leave?! Kate falls down on her knees, dropping the pipe in front of her as she sobs, wishing the entity would just take her from this place.

“Katie, Katie, Katie...” She hears footsteps approaching her and reaches for the pipe again, body shaking from adrenaline, she feels him walking up behind. “Poor little bird, trapped in her cage.” 

She swings but he grabs the pipe in mid-swing, chuckling down at her as she stares up with tear filled eyes; What else could she do? Kate lets go of the pipe and turns around to crawl backwards from him, watching him toss the pipe to the side. 

Was he going to hurt her now that she ran from him? Break her legs to avoid her from doing it again? 

“What do you want from me?” Kate asks quietly, hearing him come closer and looks up when he’s standing right in front of her. 

“I’m not really sure at the moment.” He mutters, his voice calm and uncharacteristic. The clown crouches down the best he can to be down at her level. “But right now, I want you to come with me back to the caravan.”

“Are you going to hurt me?” Kate asks, knowing he said he wouldn’t before but not really trusting his word.

“No, now on your feet.” He says, standing back up and grabs her by her arm, heaving her up to stand. “We have things to do.”


	4. Chapter 4

Kate sits quietly on the steps of the caravan, tattoo still glowing as she watches the clown as he tosses offerings to the entity in the fire and coughs into the crook of his arm. Not sure what she should do in her current situation; He wasn’t exactly holding her captive, she’s free to wonder around and he hasn’t even touched her. 

She watches him walk over to his table, running his hand over a few other items and picks up a relic looking thing; Curiously she asks what it is.

“Hm?” He looks at her from over his shoulder before looking back at the thing in his hand and turns towards her so she can have a better look at it. “A Ardent Raven Wreath; It’s a devious little offering, it allows me to call upon the entity for more blood.”

“...Oh.” Kate almost wishes she hadn’t ask but watches him throw it into the fire before he turns back to her with a devious smile on his face. 

“I have a room prepared for you and I’d hate to do this to ya but you’ll have to stay in there durning the trial.” He tells her, stepping closer. Kate instinctively wants to jump up and run but stays put as he approaches her, holding his hand out for her to take. She glances down towards his gloved hand then back up at him before hesitatingly reaches out to take it in fear that he would get angry if she refused.

The clown-Jeffrey pulls her to her feet and leads her towards the cathedral, seeing sacrificial hooks materializing from the ground up; A trial was getting ready to start...

Should she try to escape with the others? Will they even know she’s in the cathedral? Kate looks at the clown as he leads her up the stairs and looks down at that the hand holding hers, not sure if she’s making the right choice about going along with what he wants her to do but what could she do? The entity isn’t going to just allow her to leave even if she manages to get through the exit gate.

He stops in front of a door that she’s never seen before and he opens it for her and motions for her to go inside. Kate lets go of his hand as she walks in, looking around the new room; There’s a bed, dresser and side table...what looks to be another room and two barred windows.

It looks cozy and it’s been ages since she last slept in a bed, even if the blankets look a bit dirty.

“It’s not much but I can only do so much.” She hears him say behind her so she turns to look at him, holding her hands close to her body and offers a forced smile.

“It’s nice...thank you, Jeffrey.” Kate says, walking over to the dresser, seeing a mirror attached to the back of it; She looks like a mess, her hair is messy and her clothes are dirty and she looks like she hasn’t slept in days. 

Kate sees him walk up behind her in the mirror and turns her head towards the other but he doesn’t touch her; Just stands a few feet behind her in the room.

“You don’t have to pretend, I know you don’t want to be here.” The Clown says, looking her in the eyes and turns to leave. “I’ll be back later to let you out after the trial, be a good girl for me and don’t cause any trouble.”

With that, he closes the door behind himself and she hears the door being locked. Kate walks over the door and kneels down to glances through the keyhole, briefly seeing him heading down the stairs. 

Kate turns away and runs over to windows to look out; To her surprise and horror, she sees Nea and Meg in the distance.

A trial has started.

Will they know to look for her? There’s a generator on the same floor as her, maybe if she bangs on the door...no, if she does that, she could risk their lives but she couldn’t just stand here and watch while her friends are being hunted by the very man who’s supposed to be her soulmate.

Kate bites the inside of her cheek as she watches the two women start on a generator. Could they hear her if she called out to them?

Her thoughts are halted once she sees the clown running towards them, knife raised and ready to strike. Kate grips the bars and sees them run from him as he chases Nea, manages to land a attack on her and hears her scream out in pain. 

Kate jerks on the bars, wanting to help in some way and rushes over to the other window just in time to see Nea drop a pallet on him. Kate watches them run into the cathedral, out of view and is about to step away from the window when she sees Meg...looking up at her from behind a tree.

“Kate!?” Meg calls out, looking utterly surprised. “Oh my god, Kate! Are you alright!?”

“Focus on the trial, don’t worry about me!” Kate calls back, turning her head towards the door when she hears footsteps running past it. She looks back out. “I’ll be fine, just focus on surviving.”

“He’s holding you prisoner! How can we not worry?!” 

“Just go before he finds you.” Kate calls back, urging her to run and Meg does, running towards the caravan. Kate hears a scream down stairs and sits down underneath the window seal, wanting to cover her ears and block everything out because there’s nothing she can do.

One of the gens gets started and she feels a little relief when another is finished a second later, the red head gets on her knees to peer out the window again and sees Nea, who must have either been saved or wiggled out of the clown’s grasp, running away from the cathedral towards the direction Meg went but she couldn’t see the clown so he must have not went after her.

A male scream catches her attention but she couldn’t tell where it came from and she thinks it must have been Ace. Kate tries desperately to see if she can spot them and hears the clown’s laughter as purple smoke forms over towards the right, around the walls and finally sees Ace running from the killer. He doesn’t look hurt but she could tell whatever’s in the those bottles the clown carries is effecting him by the way he’s running.

She goes to call out to him in a warning when the clown’s words echoes inside her head.

‘Be a good girl.’

The sudden fear of a punishment for helping them hits her out of nowhere and her words die on her tongue, holding her breath as Ace runs out of view with the killer on his heels.

She feels like pulling her hair out when she suddenly hears banging on the door and sees the doorknob jiggle, running over to look through the keyhole.

“Open the door!” She hears Meg say in a panicky whisper through the door.

“I can’t, it’s locked with a key.” She tells her, jumping back when Meg rams the door. “The clown has the key!”

“What?!” Meg exclaims. “How the hell am I supposed to get a key from him?!”

“Just focus on the gens and get out of here.” Kate tells her. “We’ll figure something out later but you’re putting yourself in danger.”

“We’ll get you out, we’ll tell the others and come back for you.” The sound of another gen being finished is heard, followed by Meg’s footsteps running away. 

Two generators to go, none of them have been hooked yet so they should get out of this with no problem, she hopes. 

She decides to go back to the window, not seeing anyone for the most part of three minutes until she sees Ace sneaking behind a tree, he’s wounded and there’s no one around to heal him.

Ace limps away, holding his side as he hurries towards the circus grounds and spots another survivor, Bill, running after him with a medkit in hand. Kate hears a scream down below followed by laughter and the sound of a pallet being dropped. 

Meg is being chased.

Kate paces around her room, not sure what to do; There isn’t much for her to do so she sits down on the edge of her bed with her head between her hands, fingers tugging at her hair.

This entire situation is just stressful, she was utterly useless right now and it was driving her nuts.

Another gen is done and she perks her head up. Just one more, they can do it-a scream of someone being placed on the hook causes her to still, her breath caught in her throat. 

Meg.

Kate smacks the sides of her head, trying to figure out someway to help them, anything...maybe she could pick the lock if she had a bobby-pin or a card but the room is bare. She jumps up to dig through the dresser, nothing but clothes, then the bathroom, just a worn out tub and toilet; Nothing!

She grips the sides of the sink, knowing it was useless and drops her head down in defeat. She feels like crying, screaming out of frustration or hitting the wall; There had to be something she could do.

The last generator starts up and she hears the exit gates buzz to light, she opens her teary eyes and looks towards the bedroom as the feeling of despair is lifted from her chest. She hurries back to the bedroom to look out the window and sees Ace on the gate with Nea standing beside him, healed from his wounds as the gates open up. Both Meg and Bill heading that way as well but Meg stops as she reaches the gates and looks up towards her for only a moment before escaping.

They made it, she sighs with relief as the ground below burns with ashes; It’s over.

The clown is standing out in the open, looking at the gate as the survivors got away...he looks to be talking to himself; She could hear him refusing something but didn’t understand what he was refusing. 

A loud chime shakes the ground beneath her and she has to grab the bars on the window to keep herself from falling down, watching in disbelief as those dark like appendages came out of the ground where the clown stood and took hold of both of the man’s wrists, pulling him down on his knees. 

What was happening?

Kate grips on the bars as the clown screams in pain, his arms being broken by the nightmarish limbs as more sprouted from the ground, tearing into his body. The gory sight has her eyes widening in horror, watching in paralyzing fear as the entity continued to torture the killer, soaking him in blood. 

When it finally pulls away and lets him go, the clown falls down onto the ground, unmoving as the appendages retracted back into the earth. 

The sound of the door creaking open makes Kate spin around quickly, how did that become unlocked and who opened it? Kate walks over to the door and looks out but nobody is there, the whole thing gives her the creeps but what should she do? The killer is down, should she try for the exit gates again?

Kate wonders downstairs, walking outside and pauses when she sees the clown still on the ground, bloody and looks to be unconscious or at the very least, in a unresponsive state. She slowly approaches his body with terrified look on her face, feeling sick to her stomach when she gets a closer look at his wounds.

Why did the entity attack him like that? 

She turns her attention to the gates, thoughts riddles with questions and new revelations; Feeling confected, she looks back down at the bloody man and huffs in aggression. 

She turns and heads towards the caravan, hoping there were still some items left that she could use.


	5. Chapter 5

Kate is still wrapping his arm in bandages, watching the broken bones heal themselves when the clown wakes up again. He groans in discomfort and tries to sit up, his entire body tenses in pain as the red head pulls back, holding her hands away and waits for him to settle down again before she continues to try and mend his wounds.

She had already manage to wrap gauze around his body with quite a bit of difficulty, only having his other arm left. She gets up with her extra gauze and move to the other side of him, his head turning to watch her with a confused look on his face. She lifts his arm into her lap, rolling the gauze around his wrist and slowly works her way up his broken arm, ignoring his stare as his arm began to heal itself.

“W...what are... ya...doing?” He mutters incoherently, trying to turn on his side to get up again but grunts and lays flat again. 

“Sit still, it’s going to take a bit before the first aid fully heals your wounds.” Kate pulls away when she’s done and sets his arm back down beside him. “Why did the entity do this to you?”

“It...was unpleased...” He rasps out, laying his head back to look up at the sky. “...with the trial...”

“Does the entity usually do this to the killers when it’s unpleased?” Kate asks, raising a brow and for a moment the clown doesn’t answer; When he finally looks at her, he looks conflicted.

“It’s either that or being thrown into the...void.” 

The void? 

“What’s the void?” She asks.

“It’s a plane of existence, a place the entity tosses broken survivors and killers once it’s done with them.” The clown explains, managing to get up with a slight discomfort and looks down at the bandages all over his body. “We’re just the puppets in this game and the entity is puppeteer; it chooses when to cut the strings.”

Kate’s lips part in disbelief, processing the words and looks away; So the survivors aren’t the only one being tormented in this hellish nightmare, killers get tortured if they don’t do what the entity wants or at the very least, meets it’s expectations.

The Doctor, The Wraith, The Trapper, The Huntress or The Nurse; All of them, any of them could be tortured and thrown into the void if the Entity is bored of them.

They’re all expendable.

“You...should go lay down.” Kate tells him, getting to her feet. “Can you stand?”

He nods and slowly gets to his feet as she takes a step back, most of his wounds are healed so he should be able to walk on his own. The clown sways a bit like his knees are going to give out but he manages to keep his balance, looking at her with a unreadable expression before turning to head towards his caravan. 

Not sure what to do, Kate follows him but at a distance, watching him go inside as she stops in the doorway; The caravan isn’t empty like it usually is. There’s a bed, a table with bottles and other items scattered on top of it. 

“So...killers are forced to participate in these trials as well as the survivors?” She asks and her question is met with a laugh as he sits down on the edge of his bed, shaking his head before looking at her.

“Not all of us have to forced, girly; I love the trill of the hunt. You’re the only exception, if you were anyone else right now, I’d be more than happy to gut ya.” He says, her eyes widen at his words and grips the door frame. “But don’t ya worry your pretty little head, Red; I’m not going to hurt ya.”

“You choose to kill.” Kate says with a frown. “Why? Why would you willingly take someone’s life-“

“I don’t need to explain myself to you, Kate.” The clown snaps back, making her flinch at the sudden aggression. “I don’t want to talk about that; You are the last person I would want to know about my past.”

“I have the right to know.” Kate argues, crossing her arms. “I’m the first person who ought to know.”

“Just because we have the same damn tattoo on our arms, doesn’t give you the right to stick your nose in my business.” 

“Fine!” Kate huffs, turning to leave but he grabs her wrist before she has the chance to walk down the steps; The woman jumps and whips her head around to look at him, hoping her expression is more angry than a terrified.

“Just so you know, Red; The reason why I was attacked by the entity after the trial was because I told it, it couldn’t have you, so be a little more grateful.” He says firmly before letting her go before coughing into his hand, shifting to lay down. She just stands there, lips parted in surprise...he protected her? 

With no clue how to respond, Kate just turns around to leave, walking down the steps and past his pet horse, towards the cathedral. She doesn’t know what to think, he’s a blood thirsty murderer but cares for her enough to sacrifice himself in order to protect her and for what? Because of these tattoos on their arms? 

Soulmate or not, the man didn’t seem like the type of person who would protect their soulmate. It’s not like she would have really died so why go through the pain to spare her?

Kate crosses her arms as she kicks the skull of a broken totem, looking towards the exit gates is surprised to see a figure standing there; Her eyes widen when she realizes that it’s the Doctor. 

What’s another killer doing here?!

The Doctor looks her over as he casually walks towards the caravan, menacing chuckling to himself as he passes her from a distance and turns his attention in front of him, a bag in his hand.

Was...he here to check on the clown? He is a Doctor but she didn’t think he could do anything else other than harm people. Kate hurries her way to the cathedral, wanting to hide in her room until he was gone.


	6. Chapter 6

She must have fallen asleep at some point because when she opens her eyes again, Kate finds a blanket draped over her in bed but no clown in sight. She sits up and looks around the room, the door is open when she had it closed before; He was in here while she was asleep, the thought doesn’t sit well with her.

Glancing down at the blanket, she feels a odd feeling in the pit of her stomach; It was small, kind gesture but why? He obviously didn’t love her or even liked her for that matter, if she didn’t share the same soulmate tattoo, he would killed her by now.

Instead of thinking on it for any longer, she crawls out of bed and wonders over to the window, peering out to see if she could possibly spot the other. She doesn’t see him from where she’s at so Kate decides to leave the bedroom, walking down the steps and heads towards the carnival; Stopping when she spots the clown crouching down beside that three eyed horse, petting it. 

“Ah, she’s awake, Maurice.” She hears him say, petting the horse’s snout and chuckles as he turns to motion her over. “He’s won’t bite.”

Kate slowly approaches them, eyeing the unworldly horse as it turns it’s head towards her.

“What...is that thing?” Kate asks, holding her arms close to her stomach as the thing winnies.

“What do you think it is? It’s a horse.” The clown says amusedly, resting his hand on her arm to guide her closer. “He’ll let ya pet him, he’s not skittish.”

Kate makes a face as she looks over the horse’s deformed appearance, taking note of it’s two milky eyes and then towards the bigger one in the middle of it’s forehead. Despite not really wanting to and against her better judgement, the woman reaches out to pet the thing; Only to be spooked by the other grabbing her arm and making a sudden noise to make her jump out of her skin, followed by laughter. Kate pulls her hand away, staring at the laughing clown as he pats his horse on the neck.

“I’m just picking on ya, relax.” He tells her, bringing her closer to the horse by putting his hand on her back. “Go on, he’s gentle.”

Kate gives him once last glance before turning her attention back to Maurice, who seems to be eyeing her; Was this thing a creation of the entity? Was it dangerous? 

She reaches up to place her hand behind it’s ear, scratching it before running her hand down it mane.

“See now? That wasn’t so bad...I figured you for a horse gal, ever ridden a horse before?”

“When I was little.” She tells him, petting Maurice along the neck and looks at the clown. He can’t be suggesting she ride this thing, she’s never seen it stand up before and always assumed it’s legs were injured. “Isn’t...it unable to get up?”

“Of course he can stand, Maurice is just not allowed to prance around durning a trial.” The clown explains, patting the horse on the rear, making the horse get to his feet with a startled noise. “This old boy has been with me for as long as I can remember, he’s a remarkable horse.”

“Did you have him before...” Kate glances around before turning her attention back to him. “...Before all this?”

“Yes, he was the horse that pulled my caravan.” The clown says, reaching out for her hand which Kate was a bit reluctant to let him take and he pulls her closer. “Want to ride him around for a bit? He gets...a bit antsy if he doesn’t get his exercise and I have a few things to take care of.”

“Like what?” She asks curiously, glancing down at the hand around hers, itching to pull it from his grasp. 

“I need to go out into the fog and find offerings, the same thing you survivors do while you’re not in the middle of a trial.” He tells her, pulling his hand away to grab ahold of her waist and with strength she wasn’t aware that he possessed, lifted her off the ground to heave her up onto the horse’s back. “You don’t need reins, just tell him what to do and he’ll do it; Don’t go falling off while I’m gone.”

Kate grabs ahold of the horse’s mane to keep herself balanced on top of the creature’s back, watching as the clown turns to walk off and turns back to the horse as it paws at the ground. 

She’s really going to do this then, ride this nightmarish creature around while that man is off doing god knows what...

She supposes there’s nothing better to do, it’s better than hiding away up in that bedroom but...still...was he trying to keep her busy so she stays out of trouble? Did he think she would still try to escape, knowing it was impossible or was he using his horse to try and help her settle in her current predicament?

Kate lets out a breath, petting Maurice’s neck.

“I don’t suppose you know a way out of here?” She mutters, feeling the horse flick it’s tell and snorts through it’s nose. “I didn’t think so...I guess we can just take a walk around this place.”

The horse starts moving, causing her to hold tighter but the thing didn’t seem to mind as it trots past the caravan and heads towards the chapel and in the distance, Kate can see the clown leave through the gates. 

For a second, Kate wonders that maybe...the reason he left her with Maurice is because he didn’t like the idea of leaving her alone since the entity threaten to punish her in his place but the thought feels a little farfetched to the woman.


	7. Chapter 7

As she leads Maurice back towards the carnival ground, Kate stares up at the sky; the sun was setting and it’ll be dark soon; The clown hasn’t been back in hours and she has no idea when the other will return.

For all she knew time was different here than out in the fog or maybe something came up? Not that she cared, he can stay gone as long as he likes. Kate feels the horse nudge her with it’s nose so she turns to it and pets it along his neck, seems like the thing loves the attention it’s been getting from her.

“You’re spoiled rotten, huh?” She asks, patting it’s neck. The sound of the door of the caravan opening catches her attention and sees the clown’s face light up with a grin when he spots them, making Kate pause beside the horse. 

“There you two are; Come here, I found ya somethin.” He says, motioning for her to come to him as he steps down the caravan steps. She hesitates, hand still on the horse’s neck and can’t seem to get her legs to move; She doesn’t know why, the clown has proven again and again that he wouldn’t harm her but Kate still fears for her life. This doesn’t go unnoticed by the man and he pauses halfway to her, smiling slowly fading as he seems to realize that she’s still afraid of him but the smile comes back quickly before it completely disappears and he waves her over again. “I’m not going to bite ya girly, come on; I found ya something nice.”

Kate slowly pulls her hand from the horse and forces his feet to move, meeting him halfway, watching him pull something from his pocket. The clown eyes her glowing tattoo as he takes her hand and places something in it, pulling his hands away just as the woman looks down to see what he had given her.

A doll, one of those charms some of the others had found before; It’s cute but torn and dirty just like the rest of them. 

“Thank...you...” She says, looking back up to him and clutches the charm in her hands. Just as the clown is about to reply, a chime is heard and they turn to see hooks and generators appearing all around them.

A trial was about to start.

“You have to go back to your room now.” He says, grabbing her by her wrist and Kate nearly stumbles as he leads her to the cathedral.

“H-hey.” Kate tries to keep up but he’s moving too fast and she feels likes she’s going to fall, coming close to tripping over a stick. He stops to lifts her over his shoulder, taking the woman by surprise as he hurries into the building. Kate grabs the back of his jacket as he heads up the stairs in a hurry, terrified by the thought of her falling off his shoulder and fall face first down the stairs.

“I’m not gonna drop ya.” He reassures her, opening the door to her room and eases her down onto her own feet before leaving the room and locking the door behind him. 

Kate rushes over to the door and bangs on it with her fists with anger, wanting to rip it on it’s hinges and stop him from hunting her friends once again while she’s helpless to do anything about it. She didn’t want to go through this again, hearing her friend cry out in pain by the very hands of her supposed soulmate while she sat here and done nothing about it...but...

Kate pauses as the images of the clown being torn apart by the entity and takes her hands away from the door. He told her the only reason it tortured him was because he wouldn’t let it have her, what if he tries to protect her again? 

The whole situation was complicated; She didn’t want her friends to get hurt but she didn’t want the clown to be torn apart just to keep her from getting hurt. She wants to cry in frustration.

A sudden bang on the door startled her, making her jump back and hears someone messing with the door.

“Kate?” It’s Jeff and she can hear him trying to ram the door with his shoulder. “Hey, are you in there?”

“Jeff!?” She calls back, reaching for the door handle and tries to get it open. “It’s locked, he has the key.”

“I’ll try to get it, just give me a sec-“

“He’ll try to kill you!” Kate frowns but it didn’t matter, she could already hear him heading down the stairs. She rushes to the window and sees Jeff running out of the cathedral, the clown was nowhere in sight. Was he going to rush the clown to get his keys? Even if he got her out, if the exit gates weren’t open then how was she supposed to escape? The clown isn’t just going to let her leave. 

The sound of a door creaking open breaks her from her thought and turns to see the door coming open. It’s unlocked...but Jeff was no where in sight.

Was...the entity letting go? Why?

Kate cautiously approaches the door and peers out, seeing no one on the gen upstairs; Was it allowing her to help the others? She walks over to the generator after closing the door behind her and starts working on it...this would be the first time there were five survivors in a trial and if she played her cards right, she could escape without the clown even noticing. 

She just needs to find Jeff and let him know that she was out. 

“Kate?” She hears and whips her head around to see Dwight, he looks happy to see her. “Oh my god, we didn’t think we’d ever see you again.”

“Let’s hurry, I don’t want to stick around for much longer.” She tells him as he hurries over to help her with the gen. “If I stay under the radar, maybe I’ll be able to escape without the clown even noticing.”

“He’s chasing Ace right now.” He informs her. “Perhaps you should stay hidden until we get the exit gates open? Maybe hide in a closet or something.”

“I figured I could help.”

“I know but if he sees you out of that room, he’s going to hunt you down.” Dwight replies with a frown. “Let’s it to us, we’ll get you out of here.”

“If you’re sure...but what if he notices because of the tattoo?” 

“Stay hidden up here, if he thinks you’re still locked in that room then he won’t be suspicious.” He says, nodding towards the locker close to the room she was held in. “Stay put until we get all the gens done.”

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are appreciated!
> 
> SaltywithSarcasm.Tumblr.com


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